Confidence

By Che Yangao

Confidence

By Che Yangao

Back in the days when boats and horses were the main vehicles in the South and North respectively, Li Bai (701–762), a well-acclaimed Chinese poet from his own day to the present as a genius and a romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights, showed his wild and splendid imagination by composing the verse– “In the midst of clouds all glowing, Baidi, I left you at dawn. By evening I'll be home at Jiangling, a thousand miles I've gone.”

In an era where slowness ruled, vehicles traveling “at a snail’s pace” hindered not merely the progress of the times, but the mentality and vitality of mankind as well. Even Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty himself, eager to please his concubine Yang Yuhuan with fresh litchi, had to wait for delivery by horses racing in relay between countless courier stations and whose reins were gradually worn away during the tiresome journey. Thus, Li Bai put together a powerful ending to his poem–“Ten thousand folds of mountains, my skiff has slipped them by,” a verse that actually expressed the poet’s yearning for the rapidity of high-speed transport.

Today, many of the ancient fantasies have been turned into reality, for example, “Motionless, on earth I travel eighty thousand li a day; touring the heaven I command a distant view of many a Milky Way”, quoted from“Farewell to the God of Plague” by Mao Zedong (also known as Chairman Mao, who was a Chinese communist revolutionary, poet, political theorist and founding father of the People's Republic of China.) and the heroic feeling of “we can clasp the moon in the Ninth Heaven, and seize turtles deep down in the Five Seas” quoted from“Reascending Jinggang Mountains” by Mao Zedong, are no longer imagination and exaggeration simply existing in literary works. If the deceased authors had the chance, they might have been wondering: did we predict the future, or did our descendants help achieve our prediction?

In fact, we can easily seek evidence from our daily life, for example, when the cherry blossom in Wuhan University starts to flourish in exuberant profusion, some Chinese grannies, with a keen appetite for square dancing, come in pairs from neighboring cities like Changsha and Yueyang to admire the flowery scene. Those grannies are convinced that they are a living embodiment of spring. Some people say, the tights covering their thighs and waist cannot cover up the fact that their youth has long gone, yet they refuse to give in, and they take square dance as a relieving sanctuary for their heart.

The trip from Changsha to Wuhan is a long-distance one. Interestingly, however, the grannies can go dancing first, and then return home to settle all the housework, and ultimately ride a shared bicycle to the high-speed railway station with their dancemates. They are calm andunhurried, as if someone else has arranged everything properly for them. In fact, it is the modern internet service and high-speed transport that back them up with such confidence. With an ID card in hand and the Alipay app on the phone, they can access any train station with ease, scan the QR code on a shared bicycle to unlock it, hail a taxi, and feel free to roam the streets and lanes in a strange city. Certainly they would not travel just for the sake of it, as in their opinion, it is such a waste of time if they do not post selfies and travel blogs in the Wechat (equivalent to Whatsapp, one of the most popular messaging apps in China today.) All along the way, they admire the scenery and share the beauty of it, but deep down inside, they regard themselves as the real beauty.

More importantly, after all the sightseeing and fun, they could still manage to shuttle between the two cities, and return home after enjoying the cherry blossoms within one single day. In the evening, you will find them dancing at the square, as gorgeous as the cherry blossoms as ever.

(Translated: Zhu Yaguang )

在南船北馬為主要交通工具的時代，李白能寫出“朝辭白帝彩云間，千里江陵一日還”的詩句，足見其想象力之狂放奇絕。

生活于慢時代，蝸行牛步羈絆的不僅是歲月的進程，還有人的心性和活力。所以即便天子情急，想一騎紅塵討妃子歡心，也只能借馬蹄追風，讓數不清的驛站反復解系越來越瘦的韁繩。所以詩人在最后一句突然豪邁放聲：“輕舟已過萬重山。”其實是對風馳電掣速度的極度向往。

許多古人的幻想，都已演化為今天的現實。如“坐地日行八萬里，巡天遙看一千河”，如氣勢豪邁的“可上九天攬月，可下五洋捉鱉”，都不再是文學想象和夸張。倒是詩句的作者若九泉有知可能要問：究竟是吾等具有前瞻性，還是后人成就了吾等的前瞻性。

其實對照現實更容易從生活中得到驗證，如武大櫻花盛開時節，長沙、岳陽一些醉心于廣場舞的大媽是要結伴來賞花的。她們跳舞時非常自戀，認為自己就代表春天。有人認為她們盡管腰腿上繃著緊身衣褲，但已經回不到青春。可她們心有不甘，把廣場舞作為一份福利，在這里給自己的心放假。

有意思的是從長沙到武漢是出遠門。可她們一定會先去跳完廣場舞，然后回家把家務安排停當，才與邀約的同伴踩著共享單車去高鐵車站。她們十分從容，好像一切都有人替她們操持好了。其實是現代網絡服務和高速交通給了她們底氣。她們只需身份證和手機支付寶就可以方便進出高鐵站，刷共享單車或呼滴滴打車，就可以自由穿行在陌生城市的大街小巷。當然她們是不白跑路的，如果不在朋友圈里曬曬自拍和心得，那在她們簡直就是浪費。她們一路看，一路分享，其實骨子里是自己把自己當風景。

更重要的是，她們看的看了，玩的玩了，還能做到穿梭湘鄂兩地間，賞罷櫻花一日還。晚上的廣場舞還有她們的身姿，依舊花枝招展。

車延高 Che Yangao

Che Yangao is a well-known poet, who won the Annual Outstanding Poetry Award by October, a fomous literary magazine in China, in 2006, and was selected as the Annual Outstanding Poet by Poetry Monthly in 2007 as well as the Top 10 Poet by The Poems Deity and the Outstanding Poet by Shikan in 2008. In 2010, he won the Lu Xun Literature Prize. His collection of poems include Life, Wake Up the Dawn, Yearning for Warmth and Collected Poems by Che Yangao, and his prose works include Appreciating Li Bai in a Drunken Stupor.

著名詩人。2006年獲《十月》年度優秀詩歌獎，2007年獲《詩歌月刊》年度優秀詩人獎，2008年獲《詩選刊》年度十佳詩人獎，同年獲《詩刊》年度優秀詩人獎。2010年獲魯迅文學獎。著有詩集《日子就是江山》《把黎明驚醒》《向往溫暖》《車延高自選集》，散文集《醉眼看李白》等。

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